The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 606: Plausible Deniability As Policy

While the King continued his speech, Dominic did quick mental math on what was left of Dagos’ population.

The north central cities from Boscom to Helster had suffered significant storm damage, but they had survived the storm, the inland cities from Knazion to Soutford in the west had as well.

The east was basically empty by the time that the war ended, so Dominic didn’t even bother to count them, but that left a huge amount of land completely vacant.

The Northern Peninsula wouldn’t be ready for anyone to move back this year, even after the floods dropped.

If they tried to move people into a region with so many bodies, it would only lead to plague and disease running rampant. So, they would have to wait at least a year and then spend another cleaning up whatever was left.

For all practical purposes, the northern peninsula might as well be considered vacant in perpetuity.

However, the end of the drought and the massive amount of rainfall in the east might have actually made much of that land tenable for residents again.

If they started to get regular rainfall again, the river levels would come back up, and they would be able to move farmers back into the region to support the rebuilt city of Albroles.

How they thought that the recovery process was going to work was a mystery. But Dominic saw potential for many farmers and villagers to start making a new life in Dagos.

Just a much less populated Dagos than it had been.

There was polite clapping as the King finished the financial details of the first recovery payments, as well as the slightly sour faces of the Kings who needed to accept them.

The terms were quite generous, but it was also a huge amount of money that they were looking at borrowing. An amount large enough that it would heavily impact their nations for most of a generation.

For that reason, Dominic suspected that Chip might not accept as much as the others were willing to give them, just to keep the repayment at a tolerable level.

But knowing that it was available would put a lot of political pressure on the other leaders when times got hard in the future.

That wasn’t something that Dominic was personally too concerned about, but if a large-scale drought hit Cygnia, their produce and taxes wouldn’t be able to keep an entire nation afloat, no matter how good the terms of the trade deal were.

The dinner service was cleared, and dessert was brought out, along with stronger liquors and more wine.

Clearly, nobody was expecting to leave the table any time soon, and there were still many fine details to be decided even after the framework of the agreement was in place.

Like with any new law or treaty, how it was implemented was important as the actual wording.

The Emissaries and other members of the Cygnian team were all huddled together, discussing something, while most of the others also split off into their own national groups.

The only exception was Advisor Trionne, who had come to sit at the end of the table with Dominic and Alexis, while the Necromancer King was speaking with the other Monarchs.

"What do you think? It’s going to be fun, right? All sorts of trade, and a new bank. Excuses for all the wealthy Nobles and Royals to come visit you." She joked.

"I thought that the bank was for national level funding?" Dominic asked.

Trionne nodded. "Indeed it is. However, the process for obtaining funding would be too tedious if it went directly through the Kings. So, it will instead go through the titled Nobles, and then the council’s representatives will decide if it is worthy of consideration to be presented to the King."

"Ah, I see how it is. It’s not that the bank won’t do business with anyone else, but that the Kings will guarantee the loans.

That makes sense.

With so much work to do, it will be easier to have a third-party review all the funding applications that are beyond what the individual nations can fund."

"It feels good to be wanted, I guess. I suspect that our guest houses will remain well occupied for years to come. If they’re sending Dukes and Earls here to get funding petitions approved, they’re unlikely to want to stay at the Inn over the tavern, or the hostel at the Adventurer’s Guild." Dominic joked.

Alexis laughed at the thought, while Trionne simply looked bemused.

"You know, I might actually pay to see you tell them that. The look on some stuffy Duke’s face when he was turned away at the gate and sent to a commoner Inn full of drunk dwarves or adventurers would be priceless.

Compared to most of their neighbours, the Cygnian Nobles are remarkably progressive and laid back." She explained.

Alexis sighed, and Dominic knew that the old Techno Witch wasn’t joking.

She was easy to get along with, but she was also a bit crazy. That certainly helped, from Dominic’s point of view, but he could see that Trionne would quickly give Alexis a headache if they were left alone in a room.

"I see how this is going.

They offloaded their most annoying subjects onto us, so that an elected council at the bank can vet proposals for them. No more having them show up at the Royal Court every afternoon looking for an audience, instead they get to come here, present a proposal and have it vetted thousands of kilometres away." Dominic realized.

"You catch on fast. It also allows them to save face if they’re limiting the budget. Instead of turning down ideas directly, they refer them here, and they can blame the council, while pleading poverty and the best interests of the nation."

Dominic smiled. "And if it falls through, and the nation won’t cover the spending proposals, I’m certain that someone here in Wistover might be able to come up with a way for them to get the money.

Just sign a little contract, and use your Noble Holding’s production to guarantee the loan..."

Trionne smiled, and Alexis pinched his leg.

"Don’t go giving anyone ideas about becoming loan sharks for desperate foreign Nobles. We’ve got enough issues coming our way without that."